Choosing specs for the new raid(Guide)

[Angarin]

Can't you just spam felflame in place? It does decent damage & extends dots. Feels like it makes up for it. I haven't gotten my lock to 90 yet so I'm just curious. I loved demo from 1-80 then I was like better learn affliction and was like "ohmygod =D"

[xskarma]

Can't you just spam felflame in place? It does decent damage & extends dots. Feels like it makes up for it. I haven't gotten my lock to 90 yet so I'm just curious. I loved demo from 1-80 then I was like better learn affliction and was like "ohmygod =D"

Fel flame only extends Corr & UA, and even then only by 6 seconds, meaning you spend more time spamming fel flame to increase their length then you would by normally refreshing them. Furthermore Fel Flame uses more mana, which leads to more life tapping. Both of these take time away from channeling MG on target which is what drives your dps.

[Angarin]

Ah ok, now I see what it comes down to. Basically life tapping. Where as when you spam ToC it refreshes corruption & does about the same amt of damage as a regular shadowbolt & can be casted every gcd.

Makes sense now

[Underscore]

Aff on Spirit Kings is "subpar" not because of the movement but because you can't regen shards on any add. In HF if you have moderate movement fights but you have shard regen possibilities aff will be way better.

[Bonkura]

Too bad with the Elegon wand it's not even an option to play Demo in Heart of Fear. I'll bring my Destro spec but I really doubt it can compare with Affli on more than 1-2 fights.

Affliction is highest possible DPS so if there's a fight, there are people who have gone out and squeezed every last bit of DPS from affliction in a fight. That doesn't mean it was the best when they were learning the fight. That doesn't mean they were doing anything but standing in one spot the entire fight and DPSing the boss the entire fight. Stop going to world of logs and quoting it like it means anything.

Aff on Spirit Kings is "subpar" not because of the movement but because you can't regen shards on any add. In HF if you have moderate movement fights but you have shard regen possibilities aff will be way better.

What are you guys on, if I may ask? You're not moving THAT much and jesus it's not like you can cast shadow bolts/soul fire during that movement or pop in/out meta effectively as you wish, since it messes up your procs/CDs (ie when you really want to use meta).

You have 4x execute as Affli where you get A LOT of soul shards and you can also multidot when next boss spawns.

Demo is viable on Spirit Kings but sure as hell not better than Affliction. If you think there's room for padding this early you're either talking about normal or just haven't done the fight.

[mouthpiece]

Time to reforge demo for this week after MSV. Good looking out kaamy u lil QT!

[streatxu]

I am sorry and i never did the ptr raid test. But I was watching the youtube videos about Heart of Fear bosses. What I see is not exactly what has been described.

At least first two bosses. I feel Aff still can do better job than demo.
Imperial Vizier Zor'lok : Single target with a lot of movement. Only need to move to avoid the sound wave. It's not a lot at all
-Winner : DEMONOLOGY.

Blade Lord Ta'yak : Single target, with a lot of movement starting at 20%. disappears during the fight for 5 seconds each time(dots falling off). While moving at 20%, you can't dps even if you are demo.
-Winner : DEMONOLOGY

Let me continue to watch more bosses' videos and c...

[Gootgot]

Hmm.....in order to take OP seriously, i would like to ask you to write down your opinion on the best spec for each boss in MSV ?

[Deleted]

Affliction is highest possible DPS so if there's a fight, there are people who have gone out and squeezed every last bit of DPS from affliction in a fight. That doesn't mean it was the best when they were learning the fight. That doesn't mean they were doing anything but standing in one spot the entire fight and DPSing the boss the entire fight. Stop going to world of logs and quoting it like it means anything.

@ambident- I think we can all agree your post ranks a distant third.



Opinions. Opinions. Opinions.

Affliction does the highest dps. That means that when top raiders are bored and the bosses are on farm (as they basically are) and healers aren't stressed affliction will give the highest parses. It doesn't even matter when you know when all the adds will pop, where to move for the shit on the ground, when phases change. All of this because any time someone gives an argument for using another spec someone says "but teh parses!".

So because affliction is factually and theoretically the best spec, we should draw the conclussion that it isn't the best spec. I get it now.
Stop misleading people.

[Deleted]

Or, play the spec that you prefer the most/are most comfortable with. Especially when you are learning new mechanics on a fight that you aren't familiar with the winning spec is going to be the one which you are most comfortable with and can push out dps without thinking about your rotation too much, giving you more freedom to concentrate on the actual fight.

That and I think that it has been pretty much proven that in reality each of the three specs is viable. Play what you enjoy.

[Krunklock]

I thought you didn't want to play Affliction on H: Spirit Kings because of the shield dropping all of your dots and having shitty shard regeneration.

[Bonkura]

So because affliction is factually and theoretically the best spec, we should draw the conclussion that it isn't the best spec. I get it now.
Stop misleading people.

He's either trolling or just clueless. I only played Demo on Feng and that was because other people messed up. Rest of the bosses I went Affli and won the DPS on all our first kills in MSV:HC except Stone Guards where a Fire Mage beat me. I'm perfectly comfortable playing all specs and there just wasn't an option for me to change. You can see my guild on the front page of guildox.com.

People really have to stop making shit up and get a grip before posting.

I thought you didn't want to play Affliction on H: Spirit Kings because of the shield dropping all of your dots and having shitty shard regeneration.

For us it's always just one shield and we blow all our shit with BL and CDs right after that and the annihilation that comes after.

[Deleted]

He's either trolling or just clueless. I only played Demo on Feng and that was because other people messed up. Rest of the bosses I went Affli and won the DPS on all our first kills in MSV:HC except Stone Guards where a Fire Mage beat me. I'm perfectly comfortable playing all specs and there just wasn't an option for me to change. You can see my guild on the front page of guildox.com.

People really have to stop making shit up and get a grip before posting.

How is your ranking in your guild relevant to know which spec is the best ?

[dakalro]

I thought you didn't want to play Affliction on H: Spirit Kings because of the shield dropping all of your dots and having shitty shard regeneration.

Affliction isn't good on first dude in H: Spirit K. It's awesome for the rest. You SB-SS first boss shield, you drain soul Sleight/Shadow Shield.

[Bonkura]

How is your ranking in your guild relevant to know which spec is the best ?

He said top raiders only played Affli for parsing. Sorry for making Destro sound completely unviable. I'd might consider it if the gearing wasn't the complete opposite of Affli.

[purefury]

destro is great with heavy movement since KJ and mana breaks make up the 10% out of mana time... sadly it scales badly and even if fight is optimal for destro, destro is not optimal spec.

with adds dying to shadowburn mana is not an issue and destro loses its freedom to move without dps loss.

[kaamila]

Hmm.....in order to take OP seriously, i would like to ask you to write down your opinion on the best spec for each boss in MSV ?

for MSV affliction is best for almost every fight. heroic feng if you need more aoe, then DEMO wins, if aoe is fine, then affliction wins. garajal is affliction hands down, spirit kings, affliction although demo isnt far behind. elegon soul shard regen is way too good to pass up for another spec. and emperor having 4 things to dot up at once is always best for affliction.

remember that these are just pure opinion and you should play what you want/are more comfortable with. as for the wand bug for demo there is a band-aid fix that was posted around the forums and when i tested it out, it seemed to be working :

#showtooltip Shadow Bolt
/cast Shadow Bolt
/stopattack

[Deleted]

IMO Affliction is clearly the best spec in 25HC only on Will of the Emperor (if you do the Rings of Frost strategy that prevents Destro from sniping the small adds), and on Feng/Gara'jal if you don't need a strong AoE (or won't AoE at all).

[Deleted]

destro is great with heavy movement since KJ and mana breaks make up the 10% out of mana time... sadly it scales badly and even if fight is optimal for destro, destro is not optimal spec.

with adds dying to shadowburn mana is not an issue and destro loses its freedom to move without dps loss.

Wait... what? If you are having mana problems as Destruction, you have too much Haste (or are doing something else wrong). Last time I checked, you only get mana from the Shadowburn-debuff if it expires without the target dieing (or if you overwrite it with a new SB), not when the target dies (in which case you get your Ember back instead of the mana).

As I mentioned in another Thread, I went for Destru/Demo/Destru/Affli/Destru/Affli in MSV, although there really are a lot of options there, as discussed in this thread.

I wouldn't go and call Affliction the "factual and theoretical" best spec for every imaginable encounter. I would always prefer to stop and think about every specific encounter before making such broad an assumption and even reevaluate the spec after a couple of wipes. But if you all agree on Affliction being the best spec for everything I guess that means it's true.

[nightfalls]

My observations (partly from Beta):

Imperial Vizier Zor'lok: There's an execute element on heroic mode. Also I'm pretty sure Demo is much better at breaking mind controls than affliction. Adds (in heroic mode) might be better handled as affliction though.

Blade Lord Ta'yak: A lot of movement here... a lot. I'd probably have to go with affliction over demo for this one, to be honest.

Garalon: Demo is good for kiting (I think DPS are required to on heroic mode). Also, you don't get shards from killing Garalon's legs.

Wind Lord Mel'jarak: The CC is done here with spears that you are provided with (you don't want to use other forms of CC, at least not as a warlock). This fight is a multidotting paradise (you want to actively be DPSing 4 targets at a time, using AoE on 7 targets is padding). I would have to go with affliction here.

Amber Shaper Un'sok: Didn't do much beta here, but I'm pretty sure you want to be affliction. The MC is long duration, so your DoTs will provide more DPS after you are MC'ed than direct damage-based specs. Also there's a lot of adds to kill, and pretty heavy multidot potential. There are usually 2 main burn targets up at once, also.

Grand Empress Shek'zeer: The MC means you basically failed the fight and need to wipe/reset (think someone going insane). Affliction fight here just IMO, but Demo might be good for mobility with setting up amber traps. Toss-up.

---------- Post added 2012-10-29 at 03:44 PM ----------

How is your ranking in your guild relevant to know which spec is the best ?

Perhaps it isn't, but the fact that Screwtape has no originality whatsoever and is just spouting "this is 'highest' DPS because others told me so, so it's the best spec just because" is pretty lame.

Especially when you look at the log he posted, and he's using rain of fire as affliction on Gara'jal. Obviously the best around.